


Quirk of Fate

by DizzyDrea



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:48:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26207434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: Facing death has a way of reorienting one's priorities, and Jim had expected the natural result of them all almost dying would be for Spock and Nyota to mend fences, maybe even make it official. That's not what happened, and Jim is still trying to wrap his head around it.
Relationships: James T. Kirk/Nyota Uhura
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40
Collections: Just Write! Trope Bingo





	Quirk of Fate

**Author's Note:**

> This was actually supposed to be the first chapter of a longer work, but I ended up not using it because it got too wordy for an opening scene. I still liked it, though, so I'm glad I could post it as its own story.
> 
> For the _Enemies to Lovers_ square on my Trope Bingo card on the Just Write Discord.
> 
> Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry, CBS, Paramount, JJ Abrams, Bad Robot Productions and a lot of other people who aren’t me. I am doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~

The sea breeze wafted across the beach, bringing with it the smell of salt and a freshness and vibrancy that just couldn't be replicated aboard ship, no matter how much the designers tried.

Jim Kirk stretched gently as he stirred from his nap, trying hard not to move too much and wake his hammock-mate. Even as he settled back in, she hummed and snuggled closer into his side.

"What time is it?" she asked, though her words were muffled by the fact that she was speaking them into his chest.

Jim chuckled as he carded his fingers through her hair. He glanced at the communicator he'd abandoned on the low table. "Mmmm. A little after three, I think. Why? Got somewhere else to be?"

"We're supposed to be meeting Leonard for dinner," she said. "I'd like to get cleaned up before we leave. At least take a shower. I feel like I'm covered in sand and salt."

"We have time," he said. He wasn't at all eager to move, so he wrapped his arms around his lover and nudged the hammock into a gentle sway. "Besides, Bones isn't going anywhere. Last I checked, he was surrounded by medical journals and the finest bourbon money could buy."

He could feel rather than see the smile Nyota pressed into his chest. "Does he even know the definition of the word vacation?"

"Like you know how to switch off any better than he does," Jim said. 

"Hey, I'm here with you, aren't I?"

And wasn't that the biggest surprise of them all? Jim had thought, after the incident with Krall, that she and Spock would get back together. Facing death had a way of reorienting one's priorities, and he'd expected the natural result of them all almost dying would be for Spock and Nyota to mend fences, maybe even make it official.

Instead, they'd decided to remain friends—good friends, but just friends. And then she'd shocked everyone, including himself, by asking him to coffee. He still couldn't figure out what he'd done to deserve this woman in his life, but he tried never to take a single day for granted where Nyota Uhura was concerned.

"You're thinking too much, Jim," she mumbled.

"Sorry," he said. 

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head and leaned his head back, trying to go back to being blessedly blank.

"What's wrong?" she asked. She pulled back and looked up at him, one eyebrow raised in that damnable way that she'd learned from Spock.

"Nothing is wrong, beautiful," he said. "I was just thinking about everything that happened after Krall."

"You haven't talked about that in a long time," she said. "Why now?"

Jim shrugged, as much as he was able while wrapped around Nyota. "Dunno. Maybe just because we're here, together. A year ago, you were still with Spock and I was still wondering what the hell I was doing."

"I still can't believe you kept that such a secret," she said. She leaned back, propping her elbow on the hammock and propping her head on her hand. "I mean, none of us had any idea you were thinking of leaving Enterprise."

"And you weren't supposed to know," he said. "I'm the Captain. I'm supposed to be the steady hand. The crew would lose faith in me pretty quickly if they thought I had doubts about the job I was hired to do."

"Doesn't mean you can't confide in someone," she said. "No man is an island, you know."

"John Donne," Jim said. "I did talk to Bones, briefly. Never could quite figure out how to talk to Spock, though. I still don't think he knows how close I came to leaving the ship."

"I thought you guys were supposed to be friends," Nyota said, nudging him with her knee. "Doesn't say much for your friendship if you can't even have an important conversation when you need to."

"Hey," he said as he pushed her knee away from his more sensitive bits. "We talk. We talk all the time."

"Ship's status reports do not a conversation make," she said.

"We play chess once a week," he said, reminding her of something she already knew. "And we do talk while we're playing. I figured I owed it to him to really invest in our friendship if I was going to remain Captain of the Enterprise."

"Good," she said. "Spock would willingly isolate himself in his lab if you didn't drag him out every once in a while."

"Is that why you two broke up?" he asked. They'd never really talked about it, mostly because he thought it was none of his business. He wasn't even sure why he was asking now, except that she seemed open to having that conversation in a way she hadn't in the past.

Nyota huffed. "Maybe. Part of it, anyway. He had been spending a lot of time in his lab, but I think he was doing it to avoid having a conversation with me. Which is a dick move, but I can't fault him for not wanting to hurt me. But he wasn't the only one looking for an exit strategy."

"You?" Jim asked, surprised. "I thought you were in love with him?"

"I was," Nyota said. "Or, at least, I thought I was. He's so intelligent and dedicated, and at the time, he was the strongest person I knew. But I was always expecting him to react to me emotionally, which he couldn't do."

"You do know that Vulcans feel emotions, even if they choose not to show them, right?" he asked. "I mean, you've studied cultures from a linguistic perspective, so I know you know that, but really?"

"Yes, I do, in fact, know that," she said, rolling her eyes. "The thing is, I didn't even realize I was doing it until after the thing with Khan. I thought about it a lot while you were in the hospital and I realized that every time he reacted to my emotions with logic, I got angry with him. It wasn't fair to him, especially when I knew better. I just… couldn't stop."

"I'm glad you realized it before you did something more permanent," he said. "Breaking up is never easy, but it's at least easier if there's not a marriage to undo."

"We'd have never gotten that far, anyway," she said, shrugging. "As a Vulcan, he needs a telepathic bond with his mate. He'd have known the first time he touched my mind that something was wrong. Besides, I'm not sure I'd have been able to share my mind with him like that. It seems so… intrusive."

"It's not terrible," Jim said. "There's a transparency to melding that's appealing. Being understood clearly, because there's no way to hide when you're sharing more than just your thoughts."

"Huh," Nyota said. "I'd have never expected that of you."

"What?" he said. "I can be deep when I want to be."

"Please," she said. "You were as shallow as a tea cup when we first met and you know it."

"Why? Because I saw a pretty, intelligent, sassy woman at a bar and decided I wanted to meet her?"

"Because you hit on me within seconds of meeting me," she said. "And you were drunk when you did it."

"And when I sobered up, I still thought you were smart and beautiful," he said. "If I'd known you were dating a professor, I'd have backed off. But you never said anything."

"Yeah, well, that wasn't exactly the smartest thing I could have done, now was it?" she asked.

"Takes two to tango, as they say," he said, pointing to her.

"And what about you?" she asked. "Seducing my roommate so you could get her to upload the altered code to the Kobayashi Maru computers. How is that not the epitome of shallow? Needing to beat the computer to validate your manhood?"

"Ouch," he said, pressing his fist to his chest. "It wasn't about beating the test." At her skeptical eyebrow, he shook his head. "Okay, it wasn't all about beating the test. Some of it was about figuring out how to beat the odds. How to break the rules when you need to in order to save lives."

"Uh huh," she said, shaking her head.

"The test is supposed to make you face your fears, right?" he asked. At her nod, he went on. "How can I be afraid during the test if I know I'm going to lose? I don't know why anyone comes out of that test traumatized. It's all so predictable. What they should do is program it to let the students win once in a while. Once they get the idea they could possibly win, they'll take it seriously. There are enough permutations to program the test so that they can give the students a real challenge."

"And the thing with Gaila?" Nyota asked. "Did you really just seduce her so you could get access to the KM computers?"

"I loved Gaila," Jim said quietly. "She told me not to fall in love with her because she wasn't going to fall in love with me. She wanted to be free, so I let her. And then, the night before the Kobayashi Maru, she told me she thought she'd fallen in love with me. And me, like an idiot, said it was weird. That was the last thing I said to her, and the day after the test she died, along with everyone else on the Farragut."

"I'm so sorry, Jim," she said. She laid a hand on his cheek, caressing him gently, her thumb catching the tear he couldn't hold back.

"It's… well, it's not okay, obviously," he said, voice rough with emotion. "It's nice to say it out loud, though. Especially to someone who cared about her, too."

"I miss her," Nyota said quietly. "It drove me nuts when she'd bring guys back to the dorm, but I tried not to let it get in the way of our friendship. She was Orion; sex was practically a necessity, even if she was having her pheromones suppressed per Starfleet regulations. I've heard they don't like doing it, but she never complained."

"They don't," he said. "She told me once it was like having one of her senses blunted. Orions view the world through the lens of sex; they use it as a tool, to control or relate to someone. Sometimes just to express friendship. It's an art form for them. That's why Orion slave girls are so highly prized, which is disgusting to say, but it's the truth."

"So, how'd you get her to help you reprogram the test?" she asked.

"I told her I was going to challenge the Academy brass," he said, waggling his eyebrows the same way he'd done with Gaila the night they'd talked about it. "We'd been talking about it because she'd just joined the computer lab. The code drove her nuts. So did Spock, by the way. Anyway, she wanted to get in there and reprogram the whole thing, but the Academy brass were over the moon that Spock had made the thing unwinnable, so that was never going to happen."

"Wait, you mean it wasn't before?"

"It's always been unwinnable," he said. "But you used to be able to hack the test from inside. Most of the time, you lost anyway, but you could at least be creative and draw it out. Give yourself a chance. Now, it plays out virtually the same every time. That's not testing anything but your sanity for even sitting down in the chair."

Nyota laughed. "That's why you took it so many times. You were trying to figure out the best path to altering the test. And then you were put on academic suspension for cheating."

"I had a long talk with Admiral Forrest when we got back, after Nero," Jim said. "Technically, I was still on academic suspension, so giving me command of Enterprise was going to be a little difficult."

"And what did he say?"

"When I explained my reasoning, he was… open to some changes," he said. "I guess he hadn't realized that what they'd been doing wasn't working. Plus, that theoretical no-win situation had just played out in that final confrontation with Nero. We survived what should have been a no-win situation, which more than amply demonstrated that, given enough motivation, 'Fleeters can be very creative."

"Survival is a powerful motivator," she said, her voice subdued. "Krall taught me that."

"Because he survived, or because you did?"

"Both," she said firmly. "I don't agree with his mission, but I sort-of admire his determination to see their mission through. And of course, watching him do that just made me even more determined to survive myself so I could help stop them."

"Well, I'm incredibly glad you did survive," he said. He leaned forward a little and pressed a sweet, mostly chaste kiss to her lips. "If you hadn't, I'd never have gotten to do this."

"Kiss me?" she asked, one eyebrow arched.

He shook his head. "Love you. It's an honor and a privilege that I'll never take for granted."

"Jim," she said, shock drifting over her fine features. "I—really?"

"Is it so hard to believe?" he asked, chuckling. "You're beautiful, smart, talented, and can kick my ass six ways to Sunday. I, apparently, have a soft spot for women who can do that."

"You do have a type," she said, shaking her head. "I'm not even sure you do it on purpose at this point."

"Probably not," he said. "Although I'm told it's poor form to discuss my exes with my current partner."

"Partner?" she asked. "I'd have thought you'd go with something closer to lover, or maybe even girlfriend."

He could see the disdain for that word in every fiber of her being. "You're my equal in all things, Ny. Lover, yes, but you're hardly a girl. We weren't even friends until recently. You hated my guts."

"I—" She stopped, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times. Then she shrugged, a rueful grin spreading over her face. "I can't even deny it, much as I might want to."

"It's okay," he said shaking his head, even as he smiled. "I knew I wasn't your favorite person. Even after Nero and Khan, I knew you tolerated me at best. And that was okay. You were Spock's girl. I wasn't supposed to feel anything more than professional admiration for you."

"Maybe we should go on shore leave more often," she said, shaking her head. "I've learned far more about you in the last hour than I have in the months we've dated aboard ship."

"I guess I just feel like I should be the buttoned-up Captain when we're aboard ship," he said, shrugging. "Not that I'm all that buttoned up. I was pretty immature, even after the Nero clusterfuck. I can't even say I was all that surprised when they took Enterprise away from me. I mean, part of the reason I was given command in the first place had to do with a quirk of fate."

"A quirk of fate?" she asked.

"I survived the Kelvin," Jim said. "I survived that day when the odds say we all should have died. Pike wasn't wrong when he said I was made for something bigger than being the smartest repeat offender in the Midwest. It just took me longer than it probably should have to figure it out."

"I'm glad you did," Nyota said. "If you hadn't, I'd have never gotten to know you. And if I'd never gotten to know you, I'd have never fallen in love with you."

His face lit up with the joy he couldn't quite keep inside. "Well, then. Aren't I the lucky one? I think we should raise a toast to Fate tonight. What do you think?"

"Good idea," she said. "Let's get going. Don’t want to be late meeting Len. He'd never let us hear the end of it."

"He's gonna take one look at this face and know what we've been up to," he said, lamenting just how lousy his poker face was when it came to his best friend. Even if they'd been doing no such thing.

"He won't say anything," she said. She slid off the hammock and started gathering up their things. "He's too afraid of me to risk it."

"He's not afraid of you, sweetheart," Jim said. "He just has a healthy respect for any woman who can deball him without breaking a sweat."

Nyota's laugh burst from her chest, warming his heart. He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. "Come on. Let's get going. We can always celebrate in private after dinner."

"That's a deal," she said, smiling up at him.

~Finis


End file.
